Nature News: Feathered fossils cause a flap in museums

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Dalton, R. (2004)  Feathered fossils cause a flap in museums.  Nature 429: 
5.

This brief article reports on the shenanigans surrounding the (*ahem*) 
travel arrangements of certain exquisite Chinese fossils.  It's a 
'he-said/she-said' about how feathered dinosaur fossils from Liaoning came 
to be in the hands of Mr and Mrs Czerkas of the Dinosaur Museum.  The 
Czerkases, if you recall, were at the epicentre of the 
"Archaeoraptor"/National Geographic debacle five years ago.  Ji Qiang 
(Institute of Geology in Beijing) maintains certain specimens were smuggled 
out of China, but the Czerkases protest their innocence.  Anyway, the 
fossils will be repatriated to China in 2007.

One line in the article made me smile....

"Stephen Czerkas is an artist who is self-taught in palaeontology..."

After reading Mr Czerkas' articles in the "Dinosaur Museum Journal", he 
should have fired his teacher, IMHO.



Tim

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